Beò! 2029, the Inverness-Highland bid for UK City of Culture 2029, has launched an ambassador programme to help champion the bid and build support across the region and beyond.
Award-winning folk singer Julie Fowlis and Ivor Novello-nominated singer-songwriter Katie Gregson-MacLeod have become the programme's first ambassadors, lending their support to the only Scottish bid longlisted for UK City of Culture 2029.
Ambassadors will play a key role throughout the bid process, promoting Beò 2029 within their own networks, providing insight and expertise to strengthen the submission, and helping highlight the opportunities City of Culture status could create for communities across the Highlands.
Julie Fowlis said: “I’m so delighted that we have the confidence as an area to let people know how proud we are of the tremendous artists and musicians we have here. This bid can add national profile to the amazing creative work that people are doing throughout the year and throughout the Highlands. I wish it every success.”
Fresh from an Irish tour and TRANSMT Festival appearance at the weekend, Katie Gregson-MacLeod said: “I’m endlessly proud to be an artist from Inverness, and the Highlands more widely. I’m so glad that through this bid, we get the opportunity to present what we have to offer. I owe so much of my trajectory and identity as an artist to this place. For a long time I didn’t know the career that I have now could begin at home. It was eventually connecting with artists in the local scene and getting the chance to play at Belladrum festival when I was 18 that allowed me to imagine pursuing an artistic career that began, and would always have its roots, in the Highlands. Bolstering seedlings of talent and creativity, and shedding light on the projects already happening, would go such a long way in laying the groundwork for younger generations of Highlanders to grow up seeing the arts as somewhere they belong. Opportunity breeds more opportunity, and I’m so glad Inverness and the Highlands are being given this stage.”
Highland Council leader, Cllr Raymond Bremner, added: “Culture is at the heart of what makes the Highlands such an attractive, distinctive and vibrant place to live, work, and visit. The ambassador programme will bring together people who care deeply about the Highlands and believe in the power of culture to transform places and lives. Julie and Katie are outstanding ambassadors for the Highlands. Both have built successful careers while remaining proud advocates for the places and communities that shaped them. Their involvement sends a powerful message about the strength of our cultural sector and the opportunities that exist here for people of all ages and backgrounds. I look forward to seeing more ambassadors from across the creative spectrum join the campaign as we continue to build support for Beò! 2029."
Further ambassadors will be announced as the bid develops over the coming weeks.
Inverness-Highland is the only Scottish entry to be longlisted for UK City of Culture 2029 and the first bid to represent a region.
The bid aims to demonstrate how culture thrives beyond cities and plays a key role in tackling depopulation and shaping resilient, healthier and sustainable rural and island communities. The bid will act as a catalyst to reset and strengthen the region’s cultural strategy, unlock new partnerships, public and private investments, and support long-term social, economic and place-based benefits for communities across the region.
Beò! means ‘alive’ or ‘living’ in Gaelic and was chosen as the name for the bid to reflect the Highlands as a place of living culture - dynamic, welcoming and contemporary, while rooted in the region's rich Gaelic heritage and traditions.